AdNews: Mobile and video ad dollars start to boom

The mobile and video ad markets are starting to take off in Australia.

According to latest IAB/PwC data total online ad spend in Australia for the first three months of 2014 reached $1,067. General display advertising was up 27.5% year on year. Search and directories ad spend increased 18.8%.

Mobile advertising has taken longer to take off in Australia than many market participants would like. Part of the reason for this is that it is harder to track - the cookie issue. The IAB is working with Nielsen to develop a solution to mobile measurement. Another element partially behind the lag in ad dollars, compared with the amount of time people spend on their phones, is ad formats, along with marketers taking time to channel dollars into what still largely consider a new channel.

But that is starting to change. While coming off a low base, the IAB said mobile was responsible for 21.5 per cent of digital display revenue and 17.1% of search revenues for the quarter. That chimes with latest SMI data for April, which suggested mobile ad dollars placed by agencies increased almost 70% compared to April 2013.

IAB CEO Alice Manners suggested that in the next financial year, Australian publishers would receive more traffic from mobile than desktop. Whether dollars would follow at the same rate is debateable. Manners said the measurement piece was a critical element and added that the mobile panel trial should yield initial results in June.

Meanwhile video advertising is starting to boom, growing 55.7%, according to the estimates, representing 14.3% of digital display dollars for the quarter.